ANTIBIOTICS RESISTANCE AND PUTATIVE VIRULENCE FACTORS OF AEROMONAS HYDROPHILA ISOLATED FROM ESTUARY

This study aim to investigate antibiotics resistance profile and putative virulence factors of Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from estuary. Bacteria used for this study were isolated from water and sediment samples obtained from Sungai Melayu, Johor, Malaysia. Serially diluted 100 μL water and 1g sediment were inoculated on modified Rimler - Shott (mRS) agar. Colonies with distinct cultural characteristics were picked for further studies. Isolates were tested for biofilm productions, protease enzyme and antibiotics resistance profile using agar well diffusion method against 10 commercial antibiotics. Congo Red Agar (CRA), Microplate and Standard Tube (ST) methods were used for assessment of biofilm formation among the isolates while Skim Milk Agar was used for protease production. Sw.KMJ 3 and Sw.KMJ 9 produced black crystalline colonies on CRA. Six of the isolates were biofilm producers in ST method. Result of Microplate method, helped in grouping the isolates into weak (n = 8), moderate (n = 3) and strong producers (n = 4) at 540 nm wavelength. All the isolates were classified as weak ODc ODi 0.1, moderate ODi = 0.1 0.12 and strong producers ODi 0.12 respectively at 540 nm wavelength. Antibiotics susceptibility test also revealed that all the isolates were resistant to between 6 and 10 antibiotics. Two isolates each were resistant to 6 (60 %), 7 (70 %) and 9 (90 %) antibiotics respectively. Eight of the isolates showed resistance to 8 (80 %) antibiotics while only isolate Sw.KMJ-7 showed resistance to all the tested antibiotics. Sw.KMJ-3, Sw.KMJ-8 and Sw.KMJ-9 produced protease enzyme on SMA. The isolates were also found to be resistant to both antibiotics and heavy metals.